I was surfing the net over the weekend and came across a private yacht called “Octopus”. What a yacht it is! At 126m long, it is apparently the largest privately owned yacht in the world – costing US$200 million and has a permanent crew of 60. It has two helicopters, seven boats, and a 10-man submarine that has the capacity to sleep eight for up to two weeks underwater. Talk about luxury accommodation!

The cost to maintain the yacht and cover crew salaries is estimated at US$20 million a year, and that’s before you drop anchor and leave the dock.

The man that owns this behemoth, Paul Allen, is the co-founder of Microsoft. It is just one of three he owns, although the other two yachts are not as big.

This maritime mammoth got me thinking, what else do those who can afford anything spend their millions on? Here are some of the luxury purchases made by the uber-wealthy according to Forbes.

Private Planes

Private Planes are to billionaires what Ferraris are to programmers who have cashed in their stock options. They are the thing they have always wanted and now can finally afford. The most popular is the Gulfstream V which retails for around US$40 million., although there are reports of a couple of A380′s on order for private use at a whopping US$280 million.

Sports Teams

Perhaps buying a sports team is a repressed adolescent fantasy for rich guys who could never play sports in high school and can now afford to buy the whole team? Paul Allen reappears here thanks to his purchase of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and the Portland Trailblazers NBA team. Mark Cuban who founded Broadcast com owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, and lets not forget Malcolm Glazer who famously purchased Manchester United Football team and also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL team.

Collecting

Many of the veterans of the Forbes 400 rich list have been collecting for years, but for some of the newer billionaires, it’s a more recent passion. Bill Gates made several headlines through his purchase of celebrated artworks, the most important of which was when he paid approx US$30 million in 1994 for Leonardo Da Vinci’s Leicester Codex.

Getaways

There is a reason why a getaway is called what it is – because people don’t want to be found. Every Billionaire owns at least one, but the whereabouts are jealously guarded. Media Mogul Robert E. Turner has made no secret about his. Over the past several years, he has spent nearly half a billion dollars acquiring land around the world including 13 separate ranches in six western states, totaling 1.7 million acres – making him the largest landholder in the United States outside of the federal government.

Clothes

It is easy to say that a billionaire, like an 800 pound gorilla, can wear anything he wants. But billionaires are getting more dress savvy, thanks in part to the skill of master menswear tailor Gian De Caro, whose Seattle shop has made hand-sewn suits for most of the city’s high tech elite.

Yachts

After purchases by the likes of Paul Allen, luxurious super yachts have become one of the big ticket items billionaires like the most. Larry Ellison, CEO of software giant Oracle is another with a fondness for sailing yachts.

Jim Clarke former chief of Netscape has just recently commissioned a multi-million dollar, 292-foot three master, that when completed will be the world’s largest sloop.

(Update: The next post in this thread will feature the world's most expensive yacht. ~ h$m)

Staff

The single biggest expense that any billionaire can accrue is manpower. Getting all the people you need to fly your planes, build your homes, manage your ranch, hang your paintings and cook your meals can add up. To get help getting help, billionaires turn to companies that specialises in training and placing household management staff around the world. Entry level household staff can earn as much as $35,000 to $55,000, depending on skills, while more experienced estate level managers can earn up to $125,000 a year. (They get lots of perks, too, like travel and material things! ~ h$m)

Whilst these things are clearly luxury items to the average wage earner, it still begs the question: why?

Over the years there have been many who search for the most expensive mega yacht in the world. If you are one of them, then I have good news – you can stop searching.

The most expensive yacht in the world is called “A”

Forget about the silly and luxurious names that all the vessels that have ever been considered as the most expensive yachts in the world have had.

The newest most expensive yacht in the world is simply called A. Yes, it is A – just the letter A. Nothing more since only the letter A can represent how luxurious, expensive and extraordinary the yacht is. The most expensive yacht doesn’t need a real name. After seeing the yacht there should be no doubt in your mind that it is the best in the world.

Most Expensive Yacht in the World Costs 350 million dollars

That’s right! The most expensive yacht in the world costs 350 million dollars (260 million euros). It is designed by the world wide renowned designer Philippe Starck.

Haven’t heard of him? That’s OK. All you really need to know is that he is the guy who does interior design for the French president and that he single-handedly designed the Eurostar trains that connect France to England.

Mr. Stark also single-handedly designed the most expensive and luxurious yacht in the world. This is the first time anyone is allowed to take a look inside the A.

While not the largest yacht in the world, the 121 meter(398 feet) A is so over-packed with luxury in the inside that this makes it the most expensive yacht ever built.

3 on board pools, 2 discotheques, a helipad, a swimming platform, a secret adult room and huge boat garage with 3 separate designer boats are just a few things you can find on board of A.

To get a grasp how enormous the yacht is you should know that the fuel tank fits 757 000 litres (197 000 gallons) and just to fill it once takes about 1.4 million dollars. For that you will get 15 days of cruising until you need to refuel.

A also has an owner’s suite, 6 suites for guests and accommodations for 42 staff workers. In addition there is room for 5 personal servants for guests.

The owner of the most expensive yacht is Russian Billionaire Andrey Melnichenko

The owner of A is Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko.In addition to owning the worlds most expensive yacht, he is also known for building and developing some of the most successful energy and banking companies in Russia.

Design of the most expensive yacht in the world

The design of A is something that is heavily debated over. Some think that the expensive yacht is one of the ugliest mega yachts in the world while others simply adore it. All we can say for certain is that A looks less than a traditional yacht and more like a submarine or a war ship.

Andrey Melnichenko's yacht A

Side view:

Side view

Top view of A

Top view

Design schematics of the worlds most expensive yacht:

3d model of A

The A hosts 3 designer boats – here are two of them

Designer boats

After seeing the photos you probably have your own opinion whether the A is a beauty or not. Here is what the designer of A, Philippe Starck, said about the expensive mega yacht:

"We worked for five years to avoid any small details like that which are common in yachts and we finally got a boat which looks like a computer rendering. Such a boat was our vision, the dream."

Alhaji Aliko Dangote(born April 10, 1957) is a businessman based in Nigeria. He is the owner of the Dangote Group, which has operations in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia. A wealthy supporter of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo and the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), Dangote controls much of Nigeria's commodities trade through his corporate and political connections. With an estimated current net worth of around US$ 13.8 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as one of the richest African citizens and richest person of African descent in the world toppling Mohammed Al Amoudi ($12.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion.)

The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote's businesses include food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria: it is the major sugar supplier to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria's largest industrial group, including Dangote Sugar Refinery (the most capitalized company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, valued at over US$3 billion with Aliko Dangote's equity topping US$2 billion), Africa's largest Cement Production Plant: Obajana Cement, Dangote Flour amongst others.

Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election campaign in 2003, to which he contributed over N200 million (US$2M). He gave N50 million (US$0.5M) to the National Mosque under the aegis of "Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku", and contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library. These controversial gifts to members of the ruling People's Democratic Party have contributed to concerns over continued graft despite highly-publicized anti-corruption drives during Obasanjo's second term.[

On 23 May 2010, England's Daily Mirror newspaper reported that Dangote was interested in buying a 16 percent stake in Premiership side Arsenal belonging to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith Dangote later denied these rumours.

Aliko Dangote

$13.8 B

Age: 54

Source: sugar, flour, cement , self-made

Residence: Lagos, Nigeria

Country of citizenship: Nigeria

Marital Status: Married

Children: 3

_____________________________________________________________

Aliko Dangote (Wealth Numbers)

From Empress-N:

Pick 3:

207-303-090-213-639-235-333-246

112-335-410-001-297

Pick 4:

2124-3322-2474-4117-1957-2017

Pick 5:

33433-61129-74112-09352-35917

Jackpot & Pairs:

02-03-05-06-11-17-20-21-23-24-30-36-74

~~~~~

From Harve$t Moon:

Pick 3

609, 155, 714, 157, 745, 455, 555

558, 410, 101, 019, 195, 957

Pick 4

7455, 4555, 5558, 4101, 1019, 0195, 1957

Best of Luck with your Lottery plays!!!

Touch The Money For Luck!!!

"Claim It! Believe It! Receive It!"

I am who I am, Not because of who I am, But because the Great I AM, Made me who I am.

The common trend among all millionaires and billionaires is that they tend to be very frugal with their money – after all that is why they have a lot of it because they save it and invest it.

For those who are foolishly spending their hard earned money with out any financial plan, the following article by Investopedia’s Jean Folger is a must read.

7 Spending Tips From Frugal Billionaires

Carlos Slim Helu (Carlos Slim), a telecom tycoon and billionaire with well-known frugal tendencies, has a net worth of U.S.$60.6 billion according to Forbes. Assuming no changes in his net worth, he could spend $1,150 a minute for the next 100 years before he ran out of money. To put this in perspective, he could spend in 13 minutes what a minimum-wage earner brings home after an entire year of the daily grind.

Granted, the world’s billionaires are in the debatably enviable position of having, quite literally, more money than they can possibly spend, yet some are still living well below their means, and save money in surprising places. Even non-billionaires (currently 6,864,605,142 of us) can partake in these seven spending tips from frugal billionaires.

Keep your home simple

Billionaires can afford to live in the most exclusive mansions imaginable – and many do, including Bill Gates’ sprawling 66,000-square-foot, $147.5 million mansion in Medina, Wash. – yet frugal billionaires like Warren Buffet choose to keep it simple. Buffet still lives in the five-bedroom house in Omaha that he purchased in 1957 for $31,500. Likewise, Carlos Slim has lived in the same house for more than 40 years.

Use self-powered or public transportation

Thrifty billionaires including John Caudwell, David Cheriton and Chuck Feeney prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation when getting around town. Certainly these wealthy individuals could afford to take a helicopter to their lunch meetings, or ride in chauffeur-driven Bentleys, but they choose to get a little exercise and take advantage of public transportation instead. Good for the bank account and great for the environment.

Buy your clothes off the rack

While some people, regardless of their net value, place a huge emphasis on wearing designer clothes and shoes, some frugal billionaires decide it’s simply not worth the effort, or expense. You can find David Cheriton, the Stanford professor who matched Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the venture capitalists at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (resulting in a large reward of Google stock), wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the furniture company Ikea, avoids wearing suits, and John Caudwell, mobile phone mogul, buys his clothes off the rack instead of spending his wealth on designer clothes.

Keep your scissors sharp

The average haircut costs about $45, but people can and do spend up to $800 per cut and style. Multiply that by 8.6 (to account for a cut every six weeks) and it adds up to $7,200 per year, not including tips. These billionaires can certainly afford the most stylish haircuts, buy many cannot be bothered by the time it takes or the high price tag for the posh salons. Billionaires like John Caudwell and David Cheriton opt for cutting their own hair at home.

Drive a regular car

While billionaires like Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation) enjoy spending millions on cars, boats and planes, others remain low key with their vehicles of choice. Jim Walton (of the Wal-Mart clan) drives a 15-year-old pickup truck. Azim Premji, an Indian business tycoon, reportedly drives a Toyota Corolla. And Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea drives a 10-year-old Volvo. The idea is to buy a dependable car, and drive it into the ground. No need for a different car each day of the week for these frugal billionaires. Skip luxury items

It may surprise some of us, but the world’s wealthiest person, Carlos Slim (the one who could spend more than a thousand dollars a minute and not run out of money for one hundred years) does not own a yacht or a plane.Many other billionaires have chosen to skip these luxury items. Warren Buffet also avoids these lavish material items, stating “Most toys are just a pain in the neck.”

What we can learn

Some of the world’s billionaires have frugal tendencies. Perhaps this thrifty nature even helped them make some of their money. Regardless, they have chosen to avoid some unnecessary spending (at least on their scale) and the 6,864,605,142 non-billionaires out there can follow suit, eliminating excessive, keep-up-with-the-Jones style spending. No matter what a person’s income bracket is, most can usually find a way to cut back on frivolous spending, just like a few frugal billionaires.

When the U.S. economy was riding high for most of the 20th century, it would have been impossible to imagine a foreign city--especially one in a Communist country--with more of the planet's very richest than New York, home of old-money Wall Street. But that indeed is the case. Today Moscow is the city with the most billionaire residents in the world.

The Russian capital boasts 79 billionaires, a stunning increase of 21 in just one year. That more than edges out No. 2 New York, with 59 billionaires, and No. 3 London with 41. Other cities in the top 15 include such rising stars as Mumbai, Taipei, Sao Paolo and Istanbul. Los Angeles manages a tie for No. 8.

The combined fortunes of Moscow's billionaire population top $375 billion, more privately amassed wealth than in any other city in the world.

Despite New York's relegation to second place, the city remains a favored locale of billionaires, whose collective net worth is $221 billion. The Big Apple boasts some of the most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S., due in part to the real estate prices paid by billionaires in this city. Indeed, many Moscow residents own secondary homes in New York, including fertilizer and coal magnate Andrey Melnichenko, whose wife recently closed on a $12.2 million penthouse apartment. Even the world's richest man, Carlos Slim (home: Mexico City), snatched up a $44 million mansion on Central Park last year.

To compile our list, we tallied the primary residences of all 1,210 billionaires on the 2011 Forbes World's Billionaires list, our annual assessment of people sporting seven-figure or higher fortunes in U.S. dollars. We did not take secondary homes into account for this list.

In the U.S. we stuck strictly to city limits. For example, while a smattering of prominent media barons like Viacom founder Sumner Redstone and T.V. tycoon Haim Saban reside in Beverly Hills, they are not included in the pile of Los Angeles residents since Beverly Hills is its own city (although largely surrounded by Los Angeles).

This is great info, my Mom always said think 7th Avenue, she wanted us girls to have our own incomes and line of credit, so that we would always be able to care for ourselves, She asked the question, Why have 1 income when you can have 7, hence 7th avenue. She started us in our late teens, saving money and securing a line of credit. We wanted Jeans and albums,, she wanted us to smarten up.

Sources of income other than a job, Stocks, Bonds, Savings, Money market, Mutual funds, Money making Hobbies, collectables, Gold, and real estate.

This is great info, my Mom always said think 7th Avenue, she wanted us girls to have our own incomes and line of credit, so that we would always be able to care for ourselves, She asked the question, Why have 1 income when you can have 7, hence 7th avenue. She started us in our late teens, saving money and securing a line of credit. We wanted Jeans and albums,, she wanted us to smarten up.

Sources of income other than a job, Stocks, Bonds, Savings, Money market, Mutual funds, Money making Hobbies, collectables, Gold, and real estate.

According to msnbc com, Huguette M. Clark, the mysterious copper heiress who became the subject of public fascination and police investigation after a century of life as a recluse, died Tuesday morning at age 104, registered under a fake name at a hospital in New York City.

The handling, or possible mishandling, of her fortune were the subject of a series of reports last year on msnbc.com.

Clark first caught the imagination of the public in February 2010, when it was reported her three opulent homes remained unoccupied: an estate alongside the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, Calif., worth an estimated $100 million, which she had not visited since the 1950s; a country house in New Canaan, Conn., on the market for $23 million, which she expanded but never spent a night in; and the largest apartment on New York City's Fifth Avenue -- 42 rooms on the 8th and 12th floors, valued at about $100 million.

Huguette (pronounced "hue-GET") Marcelle Clark was born in Paris in 1906, the youngest child of U.S. Sen. William Andrews Clark of Montana (1839-1925), known as one of the copper kings. When she was a child, her father was described by The New York Times as either the richest or second-richest American, neck and neck with John D. Rockefeller.

When her father died in 1925, she received an allowance of $7,500 a month (about $1.2 million a year in today's dollars), and when she reached 21 she inherited one-fifth of her father's estate, an even split with his children from his first marriage. The entire estate was estimated at up to $300 million, or about $3.6 billion today.

The spike in interest in Clark also brought about a criminal investigation of her finances and the role her attorney and accountant played.

She died just two weeks short of her 105th birthday, on June 9. The cause of her death was not disclosed.

This article has interesting numbers to consider for your lottery investments.

Billionaires are surrounded and supported by millionaires.

The Ten Countries With The Most Millionaires

The world is becoming wealthier. According to a new report from The Boston Consulting Group, global wealth grew by about 8 percent in 2010 to $121.8 trillion. By the end of 2015 that amount is expected to increase to about $162 trillion. Despite this, most people will not see large increases in their personal fortunes anytime soon. This is because of the the gap between the rich and poor is increasing.

24/7 Wall St. looked at The Boston Consulting Group report “Shaping A New Tomorrow: How To Capitalize on the Momentum of Change” to identify the ten nations with the highest total number of millionaire households. These countries were then compared to countries with the highest numbers of households with more than $100 million in AuM, as well as each country’s GDP. The probable causes for individual financial success were also considered, including tax laws, industry and economic conditions.

Hong Kong, although not technically a sovereign country, has a largely free market economy that relies on international trade and finance. It is home to HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, two of the largest Chinese banks. It is also home to Li Ka-shing, Forbes 11th richest man in the world, who works in a number of businesses through Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Holdings. There is a flat 15 percent income tax and no capital gains tax or sales tax. Hong Kong also has the fourth highest concentration of millionaires, with 8.7 percent of all households having at least one million dollars. The island also has the third highest concentration of ultra-high-net-worth households, or those with $100 million or more.

France has the fifth highest GDP in the world and the ninth greatest number of millionaires. Over the last 15 years, a number of major French companies, such as Air France and France Telecom, have become either partly or totally privatized, giving rise to a new class of millionaires, like Stephane Richard, CEO of France Telecom. France has also alienated the wealthy in the past with policies such as the ISF tax, or wealth tax, which was passed in 1989 by Socialist president Francois Mitterand. The tax is an annual tax on French citizens with assets of more than roughly $1.1 million. Many politicians, including President Nicolas Sarkozy, have recently called for reform of the tax, saying that it drives wealthy individuals out of the country.

Italy’s ranking for number of millionaires fell from 6th in 2009 to 8th in 2011. This is probably the result of the international financial crisis worsening economic conditions in the country. Unemployment alone has risen from 6.2% in 2007 to 8.4% as of March 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Factors such as this can end up hurting even big earners. Regardless, the country is home to a large community of millionaires and billionaires. The Italian economy includes many companies which produce consumer goods such as automobiles, and textiles.

Over the past decade, a number of large banks and financial institutions in Taiwan have been privatized. Taiwan is also known for its electronics and machinery industries, which generate approximately 70% of its GDP growth. Taiwan has begun to face a major wealth gap, however, with the average household income of the top 20 percent of earners being 6.34 times that of the bottom 20 percent. The government is considering passing a “luxury tax” to fight this which would be levied on investment housing transactions, private jets, and other luxury items, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

Switzerland has a highly developed services sector which benefits its economy greatly. Nearly 10% of households in the country have $1 million or more, more than double that of the United States. The country is a major center for financial services and is home to firms such as UBS, the world’s second largest manager of private wealth assets. Other big employers include Novartis and Nestle. Switzerland has been an attractive destination for wealthy individuals, partly because foreigners did not need to declare their incomes or assets. In 2009, this rule was overturned. This may cause many millionaires, such as French singer Johnny Hallyday, who moved to Switzerland in 2006 to avoid French taxes, to leave the country.

Germany has the fifth largest economy in the world and the fifth largest number of millionaire households. The country is a leader in a number of major industries, producing large amounts of machinery, automobiles, chemicals, and more. Germany is home to Deutsche Bank, the world’s largest foreign exchange dealer, as well as Siemens, the largest engineering conglomerate in Europe. Some of Germany’s richest are tied to the automobile industry including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten and the Porsche family.

Although the United Kingdom has large coal, gas, and oil resources, its main sources of GDP are services such as insurance, banking and business services. The number of millionaires increased dramatically after the Labour Party came into power in 1997 and enacted tax cuts, according to the Telegraph. The wealthy in the UK now range from Virgin CEO Richard Branson, to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, to Queen Elizabeth.

Since the late 1970s, China has undergone a transformation from a largely centrally planned economy to one that is much more market-oriented. Many industries which were once government-controlled, such as oil, gas, and steel, have since been privatized to much success. As a result, its GDP has increased more than ten times what it was in 1978. The country is now an integral part of the world economy. As of 2010, China is the world’s largest exporter. According to The Boston Consulting Group, wealth in China will grow at a compound annual rate of 18 percent between the end of 2010 and the end of 2015. Among the richest people in the country is Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu, China’s most popular search engine. Li is currently estimated to have a fortune of about $9.4 billion.

Japan’s economy relies on strong cooperation between government and private companies, largely connected through subsidies, and a strong work ethic that is a part of Japanese culture. Major industries in the country include consumer electronics, automobiles, computers, petrochemicals, iron and steel, and pharmaceuticals. Major companies such as Toyota, Honda, and Sony, ensure that the country’s GDP remains high. Top earners in the country include retail magnate Tadashi Yanai, owner of Uniqlo and other brands, and Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man credited with turning Nintendo into the video game powerhouse it is today.

The United States has by far the largest amount of millionaire households, as well as ultra-high-net-worth-households. The US is home to the largest economy in the world — almost three times the size of China’s, the next biggest. There is also a growing income gap in the country. In 2009, the top 20 percent of earners, or those making $100,000 or more a year, made half of all income generated in the country, according to the US Census. The bottom 20 percent made only 3.4 percent.